Friday, September 13, 2013

Let's See...Do I do my child's homework or post on the blog?

Yep.
I mean "do my child's homework".
Clutch the pearls.

No. It's not the way it sounds. At our house - homework just seems to turn into an evening teaching time...learning experience. We seem to get it all done in between stir frying the rice and emptying the dishwasher. Phew.

What I'm talking about is this - Miss Molly might have to write sentences with some spelling words. Well, uhm, (throat clearing) naturally she can NOT compose sentences on paper.
Yet.
And she likely doesn't even know WHAT the spelling word means. But by golly she can memorize the spelling of them while learning to phonetically say them.

So - I model little sentences for her.
As in I write them for her. We talk about the words - in their simplest meaning. We read them together as I jot down a short sentence. She then copies the sentence(s) in her spelling notebook.
I use nouns, verbs, phrases that might already be familiar to her. I don't go throwin' in weird things that complicate the ideas.
Not sure what we'll do when we get to 'mitochondria' in her science lessons. LOL! Truthfully...we'll read the word, look at pictures of it, sketch it, study the spelling, and say it to MOM every single morning while riding in the backseat of the car on the way to school.
I am the best head-nodder/driver on the road these days.
The girls read spelling and/or vocabulary words to me. I shake my head up and down as they spell correctly and say the definitions.
I am a true bobble head.

If a spelling word is 'notebook' -- Molly's short sentence might be "My sister has a pink notebook."
Simple. Done.

I AM a huge advocate of modeling, modeling, modeling - thinking out loud, discussing.
My vocal chords are plum worn out at the end of the day.
There's another little missy girl/Emily who needs my help, too, but not nearly as much as in the past.

...and you are correct.
It takes T-I-M-E.
Repetition.
Day in.
Day out.

I knew this going into adoption #2, and believe it or not - it's probably easier this time around. Molly does have schooling background and study habits that are assisting her.
BUT then again...she has 12 years of speaking 100% Chinese that tend to get in the way every now and then. Ya think?!

In all honesty, her Chinese does not 'get in the way' (Then why did you say it?).
It just serves as the constant hurdle she has to jump.

We are doing all we can to keep her Chinese in tact while bungee jumping into the English language.
We're in a much better place emotionally as understanding, trust, and smooth adjusting seem to be dawning brightly and confusion/misunderstanding is squeezing out the back door.